How to play Go Fish
Go Fish is the asking game. You are each dealt seven cards, and you take turns asking the other player for a rank — "have you got any queens?" Collect all four of a kind and it becomes a book, laid face up. Whoever has the most books when the cards run out wins. Play against the computer at three levels of memory, or against a friend online.
How to play
- On your turn, ask for a rank. You may only ask for a rank you already hold, which is what makes every ask worth listening to.
- If they have any, they hand over all of them and you go again.
- If they have none, they say "go fish" and you take a card from the pool. Fish up the very rank you asked for and you keep the turn.
- Four of a kind is a book — it goes face up on the table and out of your hand.
- When the pool is empty and neither of you can go on, the hand ends and the most books wins.
Tips & strategy
- Listen to what they ask for. Every ask is a promise that they hold that rank, so ask them for it back later.
- When you are one card short of a book, ask for that rank early rather than saving it — the fourth card can end up in the pool.
- Asking tells them something too. Sometimes the quieter rank is the better ask.
- Late in the hand, count what has been booked: the ranks nobody has claimed are the ones still worth chasing.
Accessibility
You ask by rank rather than by card, so a pair of queens is one clearly labelled button ("ask for queens"), not a choice between two identical ones. Every ask and its outcome is announced in words, and because remembering the asks is the actual skill of the game, the full list is also kept on the page under "What has been asked for" — it reveals nothing, since every line of it was said out loud when it happened.